A coalition of Pittsburgh City Council members may have found a way to partially fill its Affordable Housing Opportunity Trust Fund, provide funding for early childhood education in the city, and offset a proposed hike in the real estate transfer tax with a package of budget amendments.

State representatives and local officials gathered in Pittsburgh Wednesday to discuss affordable housing and rebuilding neighborhoods across the city.

Rep. Dom Costa (D-Morningside) hosted a Democratic Policy Committee meeting in Lawrenceville, one of Pittsburgh’s most rapidly growing and changing city neighborhoods, to determine what state legislators can do to aid local efforts on the topic.

From highly-technical advancements in the areas of manufacturing and engineering being created at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, to Uber using city streets to test their self-driving cars, Pittsburgh is no stranger to the world of automation.

Pittsburgh, like many other cities across the globe, are witnessing and experiencing first-hand how the advancement of robotic automation is changing the landscape of a middle-class workforce, and not always for the better.

A Pittsburgh City Councilman is calling on the Wolf administration to help aid in a program that would help new homeowners pay off a portion of their student loan debt.

In a Will of Council passed by members Tuesday morning, Councilman Corey O’Connor (District 5) laid out a proposal calling on the state to develop and administer a program where the Commonwealth would repay a portion of an individual’s outstanding federal student loan debt when they finance a home through the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency.

Pittsburgh City Council sat down with a panel of community developers Wednesday to discuss a bill to divest some of the city’s publicly-owned properties.

Councilman Corey O’Connor (District 5) headed the post agenda meeting discussion on Bill 1508, which would authorize Mayor Bill Peduto, the Directors of the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Finance and the Executive Director of the Urban Redevelopment Authority to evaluate city-owned housing stock suitable for rehabilitation and resale.